Research Funding

Outstanding Academic Achievement: There is one academic achievement award for each of our three major programs (Anthropology, Archaeology and Biological Anthropology).

Thesis Award: The Anthropology Department faculty nominate several outstanding senior honors theses to be considered for the Jane B. Hart Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award. To be considered, theses must be nominated by the honors student's faculty advisor, with a copy submitted to the Hart Committee by early May (exact dates vary year to year). Nominated theses are reviewed by the Hart Committee, which selects the winners.

Any faculty member advising an honors thesis may submit a nomination for consideration by the Hart Awards Committee. Nominating is completed in the spring, but theses authored by graduates of the preceding summer and fall are eligible. 

For their theses to be considered, students must be sure to follow all the guidelines for departmental honors.

Theses must be submitted by faculty for consideration to the Hart Committee by May 1, regardless of whether the student is graduating in spring or fall. Decisions are usually announced before May 15. 

The Columbian College is notified of Hart Award winners, and the awards are noted in students' official records. Academic achievement awards are usually shown in the spring commencement program, but thesis awards are not because they are decided too late in the semester.

Jane B. Hart, BA ’70, was an accomplished aviator, anti-war activist and women's rights pioneer.

In the early 1960s, she was among a select group of women who were skilled airplane pilots with commercial ratings. Hart was the oldest participant in the Lovelace Foundation's Woman in Space Program, a privately funded project testing women pilots for astronaut fitness at a time when women were not allowed to become astronauts. She was one of only 13 women (the Mercury 13) to pass the rigorous physical tests developed by NASA to select their astronauts. Despite the test results, NASA notified them by telegram that they would not be selected for space flights. "The men just could not get it and the country lost a great opportunity," she said at the time. As Hart told a group of Michigan college students in 2001, "All of you women engineers would have had a hell of a time trying to find a job back then. It was like they were trying to segregate space."

Hart spoke with Vice President Lyndon Johnson and testified before Congress to promote the rights of women to serve as astronauts. In 1964, after Johnson had become President, he named Hart to the newly created Women's Advisory Committee on Aviation.

Although she did not travel to space, Hart was among those who paved the way for the first women astronauts and witnessed Lt. Col. Eileen Collins become America's first woman pilot astronaut in 1995. Her opposition to the Vietnam War led to her arrest during an unauthorized Mass for the dead inside the Pentagon in 1969. She also traveled to Hanoi to gain first-hand knowledge of the effects of the air war and meet with American prisoners of war.

Hart was a founding member of the National Organization for Women in 1966.

Born Jane Cameron Briggs, she married U.S. senator Philip A. Hart (D-Mich.) when he was an Army captain in World War II. 

In 2007, Hart was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. She died in 2015 at the age of 93.

2019 Biological Anthropology: Thea Anderson and Lauren Anderson; Archaeology: Cecelia Chisdock

2018 Biological Anthropology: Sheel Singh

2016 Anthropology: Celia Greene and Deanna Johnson; Biological Anthropology: Leah Gillon

2015 Anthropology: Sarah Freeman-Wolpert and Zoë Silverman; Biological Anthropology: Helen Gaynor and Laura Schwartz

2014 Anthropology: Marielle Velander; Archaeology: Lauren Campbell; Biological Anthropology: Alexandra Kralick

2013 Anthropology: Elizabeth McCutcheon; Archaeology: Tessa Varner; Biological Anthropology: Matthew Ferry

2012 Biological Anthropology: Heather Dingwall; Archaeology: Michiko Reynolds

2011 Anthropology: Tatyana Shpigel and Jack Van Paepeghem; Biological Anthropology: Katherine Markham

2010 Anthropology: Alexandra Levin; Archaeology: Melissa Cradic; Biological Anthropology: Helen Alesbury

2009 Anthropology: Lauren Deal, Rachel Snyder, and Hoang-Kim Vu; Archaeology: Anthony Sutter

2008 Anthropology: Jessica Calvanico; Archaeology: Robyn Le Blanc; Biological Anthropology: Lance Levenson and Lia Schwartz

2007 Anthropology: Joanna Brucker; Biological Anthropology: Carolyn Thimot

2006 Anthropology: Alene Kennedy; Biological Anthropology: Michaela Huffman

2005 Biological Anthropology: Anita Vin

2004 Archaeology: Katarzyna Januszkiewicz; Biological Anthropology: Angel Zeininger

2019 Anthropology: Cort Carlson; Archaeology: Cecelia Chisdock; Biological Anthropology: Julie Thomasian and Kimia Zarabian

2018 Anthropology: MaryKate Murphy; Archaeology: William Berkery; Biological Anthropology: John Case Winans

2017 Anthropology: William Francisco Kilgore; Archaeology: Allison Gartrell; Biological Anthropology: Sadina Videlock-Prentice

2016 Anthropology: Ashley Ohnona; Archaeology: Peri Buchl; Biological Anthropology: Sam Johnson

2015 Anthropology: Zoë Silmerman; Archaeology: Ariel Polokoff and Katherine Williamson; Biological Anthropology: Shobha Jagannatham and Cole Messersmith

2014 Anthropology: April MacIntyre and Daniel Rosenberg; Archaeology: Laurel Poolman; Biological Anthropology: Tierney Brown, Christopher Payette, and Christian Thomas

2013 Anthropology: Joshua Rivers; Archaeology: Joseph Pacheco; Biological Anthropology: Matthew Ferry and Schyler Turrin

2012 Anthropology: Mary Ellen Dingley and Amanda Kemble; Archaeology: Heather Dingwall; Biological Anthropology: Heather Dingwall

2011 Anthropology: Catherine Denial, Brooke Sheffer, and Tatyana Shpigel; Archaeology: Kathryn Malmberg; Biological Anthropology: Katherine Markham

2010 Anthropology: Alexandra Levin and Elizabeth Reynolds; Archaeology: Melissa Cradic; Biological Anthropology: Danica Brister and Katherine Schuhmacher

2009 Anthropology: Rachel Snyder; Archaeology: Zachary Dunseth and Natalie Mueller; Biological Anthropology: Mohammed Razvi and Teresa Uczekaj

2008 Anthropology: Lucy Jickling; Archaeology: Sneh Patel; Biological Anthropology: Lance Levenson

2007 Anthropology: Meghan Gibas; Archaeology: Jeffrey Leon; Biological Anthropology: Carolyn Thimot

2006 Anthropology: Annie-Laurie Gilsdorf; Archaeology: Laura Gongaware and Catherine Kearns; Biological Anthropology: Sara Herkes

2005 Anthropology: no award; Archaeology: Erica Stupp; Biological Anthropology: Anita Vin

2004 Anthropology: Deanne Adams; Archaeology: Moriah Amit; Biological Anthropology: Sarah Hokom

Currently enrolled GW students are eligible to apply. Funds may be used for travel, living expenses, research assistance and other expenses related to field research; they cannot be used for tuition, equipment, or fees.

Most awards are between $400 and $1,800. Grant recipients are required to present highlights of their findings at a departmental student conference or at another venue approved by their mentor.

To prepare a strong proposal, it is important to work with a faculty mentor or advisor in the Anthropology Department. This is particularly true for undergraduates, since their faculty advisor has to endorse their proposal for consideration. All our core faculty members are available for consultation about the process.

Although some people have received two Cotlow awards, preference is given to applicants who have not already received funding. Among doctoral student applicants, preference is also given to those who have not yet advanced to candidacy with the intent that Cotlow awards may assist in completing pilot fieldwork or data collection. Awards are not given to undergraduate seniors unless they are continuing enrollment in one of our Masters programs for the next year.

Proposals are due the first Friday in March. Fill out and submit the application form (PDF) and email it to [email protected]. If you have received a previous Cotlow award, please include a statement in your current application reporting the results of previous Cotlow support. Awardees are announced in April. 

The fund was created by a $150,000 bequest from the estate of Lewis Cotlow (1898-1987), an explorer, author and filmmaker who attended GW.

Among the many studies the Cotlow Fund has supported are an examination of fair trade activists in San Francisco; Mesoamerican ceramics; midwifery in Washington, D.C.; rumors of organ trafficking in Cambodia; the behavior of orphaned and non-orphaned baboons; and Hopi attempts to preserve intangible aspects of their heritage.

For information on applying, please visit the the Office of Graduate Student Assistantships and Fellowships website. 

The endowment was created by a generous gift from William Warren, a retired Foreign Service Officer, who received a B.A. in 1967 from what is now the Elliott School of International Affairs. He was American Consul in Adana, Turkey, served as Charge d'Affaires of the American Embassy in the Solomon Islands and in Samoa, and held other overseas posts. Warren established two awards, the Thomas and Ola Herbert Reidling Undergraduate Award for B.A. or B.S. candidates and the Zelma Reidling Warren Bannister and William Warren Graduate Fellowship Award for M.A. and Ph.D. candidates.

In 2008, the fund's first year, five undergraduates received awards to aid their work at Megiddo, a Bronze and Iron Age site in Israel. Since then, the Megiddo excavation continued to benefit from Warren awardees, but undergraduate and graduate students have also worked elsewhere in Asia, East Africa, and North America.

Grants are awarded annually in the spring on the basis of financial need and potential for making a significant contribution to anthropology. The money is intended to be used for academic books and other school-related costs for graduate students in the Anthropology Department. 

Awards are made on the basis of faculty nomination and selection by the department’s directors of graduate studies. Students should contact faculty directly by early February in order to request a nomination.

Ann Webster (1929–94) received a bachelor’s degree in history from Wellesley College in 1950. After marrying Harry Webster, a foreign-service officer, she spent much of the next two decades abroad, raising four children. She first began teaching in the early 1960s in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), shifting the focus from history and geography of Europe to that of Africa. In 1977, she returned to school at GW, obtaining her MA in Anthropology. She was hired as an adjunct faculty member to teach undergraduate courses, and she enjoyed great success as a teacher. She volunteered her time both within GW and in the larger community, working in an Urban League tutoring program focused on students at H.D. Cook Elementary School in Washington, D.C.